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The tanpura (; also referred to as tambura, tanpuri, tamboura, or tanpoura) is a long-necked, plucked, four-
stringed instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play so ...
originating in the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
, found in various forms in
Indian music Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk, rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed over several ...
. Visually, the tanpura resembles a simplified
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...
or similar
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...
-like instrument, and is likewise crafted out of a
gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...
or
pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...
. The tanpura does not play a
melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...
, but rather creates a meditative ambience, supporting and sustaining the performance of another musician or vocalist, as well as for musicians accompanying a dance performance. The instrument's four strings are tuned to specific notes of a given scale or musical key, normally the fifth (''Pa'';
Solfège In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...
, “So”) and the root tonic (''Sa''; “Do”). The strings are generally tuned 5-8-8-1. One of the three strings tuned to the tonic is thus an octave below the others, adding greater resonance and depth to the ambient drone. Through continuous, rhythmic plucking of its strings, the tanpura creates a constant harmonic bourdon or drone effect. Uniquely, the tanpura is not played in specific rhythm with the soloist, percussionist, or any other featured musician; the precise timing of plucking a cycle of four strings in a continuous loop is a determinant factor in the resultant sound, and it is played, unchangingly, throughout the whole performance. Tanpurists must keep true to their own rhythm for the duration of the composition, which may be over an hour in some cases, as their drone is critical to the entire musical foundation of the performance. The repeated cycle of plucking the strings in succession creates a sonic canvas on which the melody of the
raga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...
(or other composition) is drawn. The sequence of string-plucking is generally (according to pitch) 5-8-8-1, with the fourth and final string plucked being given a slight “rest”, usually two to three seconds, before repeating the cycle. The combined sound of all strings–each string a fundamental tone with its own spectrum of
overtone An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...
s–supports and blends with the external tones sung or played by the soloist. Northern and central-Indian
Hindustani music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...
ians favor the term ''tanpura'' (often used within the context of languages such as Bengali, Gujarati,
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, Sindhi, Punjabi, etc.), whereas southern and
Carnatic music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha. It is o ...
ians normally prefer ''tambura'' (for example, in
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
,
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
, or Telugu); ''tanpuri'' is a smaller variant of the instrument, sometimes used for accompanying instrumental soloists.


History

The Tanpura traces back over 2,000 years, with roots in: The Nāṭyaśāstra by
Bharata Muni Bharata (Devanagari: भरत) was a '' muni'' (sage) of ancient India. He is traditionally attributed authorship of the influential performing arts treatise '' Natya Shastra'', which covers ancient Indian dance, poetics, dramaturgy, and music ...
(~200 BCE–200 CE), where drone-based accompaniment is described (though not named Tanpura). References in
Sangita Ratnakara The ''Sangita-Ratnakara'', संगीतरत्नाकर, (IAST: Saṃgītaratnākara), literally "Ocean of Music ", is one of the most important musicological texts from India. Composed by Sharngadeva, Śārṅgadeva (शार्ङ� ...
(13th century CE) by Sharngadeva suggest instruments of similar function and structure. Tanpuras form the root of the ensemble and indeed of the music itself, as the tanpura creates an acoustic dynamic reference chord from which the
raga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...
s (melodic modes) derive their distinctive character, color, and flavor. Stephen Slawek notes that by the end of the 16th century, the tanpura had "fully developed in its modern form" and was seen in the miniature paintings of the Mughals. Slawek further suggests that due to structural similarity the
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...
and tanpura share a related history. An electronic tanpura, a small box that imitates the sound of a tanpura, is sometimes used in contemporary Indian classical music performances instead of a tanpura, though this practice is controversial.


Tanpura makers

The sitar maker family of
Miraj Miraj (Pronunciation: iɾəd͡z ) is a city that is part of the Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad metropolitan region in Sangli district, Maharashtra. Founded in the early 10th century, Miraj was an important jagir of the Bijapur Sultanate. Chhatrapa ...
is regarded as the finest producers of tanpuras in the world. The family has been making tanpuras for over seven generations from 1850.


Construction

The body shape of the tanpura somewhat resembles that of the sitar, but it has no
frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the Neck (music), neck or Fingerboard, fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the Neck ( ...
– as the strings are always plucked at their full lengths. One or more tanpuras may be used to accompany vocalists or instrumentalists. It has four or five (rarely six) metal strings, which are plucked one after another in a regular pattern to create a harmonic resonance on the basic notes of a key. The Tanpura is different from other
string instruments In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...
as it does not have any frets, giving musical and tonal freedom


Bridge and strings

The
overtone An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...
-rich sound and the audible movement in the inner resonances of tone is achieved by applying the principle of ''
Jivari In Indian classical music, ''javārī'' refers to the overtone-rich "buzzing" sound characteristic of classical Indian string instruments such as the tanpura, sitar, surbahar, rudra veena and Sarasvati veena. ''Javari'' can refer to the acous ...
'' which creates a sustained "buzzing" sound in which particular harmonics will resonate with focused clarity. To achieve this effect, the strings pass over a table-shaped, curved-top
bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
, the front of which slopes gently away from the surface of the strings. When a string is plucked, it has an intermittent periodical grazing contact with the bridge. When the string moves up and down, the downward wave will touch a far point on the curve of the bridge, and as the energy of motion of the string gradually diminishes, these points of contact of the string on the bridge will gradually shift as well, being a compound function of amplitude, the curvature of the bridge, pitch, string tension and time. When the string is plucked, it has a large amplitude. As the energy of the string's movement gradually diminishes, the contact point of the string with the bridge slowly creeps up the slope of the bridge. Depending on scale, tension and pitch, this can take between three and ten seconds. This dynamic process can be fine-tuned using a cotton thread between string and bridge: by shifting the thread, the grazing contact sequence is shifted to a different position on the bridge, changing the harmonic content. Every single string produces its own cascading range of harmonics and, at the same time, builds up a particular resonance. According to this principle, tanpuras are attentively tuned to achieve a particular tonal shade relative to the tonal characteristics of the raga. These more delicate aspects of tuning are directly related to what Indian musicians call ''raga Svaroop'', which is about how characteristic intonations are important defining aspects of a particular raga. The tanpura's particular setup, with the cotton thread as a variable focus-point, made it possible to explore a multitude of harmonic relations produced by the subtle harmonic interplay in time of its four strings.


Sizes and tunings

Tanpuras come in different sizes and pitches: larger "males", smaller "females" for vocalists, and a yet smaller version is used for accompanying sitar or
sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...
, called ''tanpuri''. These play at the octave so as not to drown out the soloist's lower registers. Male vocalists use the biggest instruments and pitch their tonic note (''Sa''), often at D, C or lower, some go down to B-flat; female singers usually a fifth higher, though these tonic notes may vary according to the preference of the singer, as there is no absolute and fixed pitch-reference in the Indian Classical music systems. One female singer may take her 'sa' at F, another at A, Sitaras tune mostly around C, sarodiyas around C, Sarangiyas vary more between D and F, and Bansuriyas mostly play from E. The male tanpura has an open string length of approximately one metre; the female is three-fourths of the male. The standard tuning is 5-8-8-1 (so do′ do′ do) or, in Indian sargam, Pa-sa-sa-Sa. For ragas that omit the fifth tone, pa, the first string is tuned down to the natural fourth: 4-8-8-1 or Ma-sa-sa-Sa. Some ragas that omit Pa and shuddha Ma, such as Marwa or Hindol, require a less common tuning with shuddha Dha (major 6th), DHA-sa-sa-SA or 6-8-8-1, or with the 7th, NI-s-s-S. With a five-string instrument, the seventh or NI (major or minor 7th) can be added: PA-NI-sa-sa-SA (5-7-8-8-1)or MA-NI-sa-sa-SA (4-7-8-8-1). Both minor and major 7th harmonics are clearly distinguishable in the harmonic texture of the overall sound, so when the Ni - strings are tuned into these harmonics, the resultant sound will be perfectly harmonious. Usually the octave strings are in steel wire, and the tonic, 4th or 5th strings in brass or bronze wire. If a string will be tuned to the 6th or 7th, a steel string is advised instead.


Variants

Tanpuras are designed in two different styles: *''Miraj style'': the favorite form of tanpura for Hindustani performers. It is usually between three and five feet in length, with a carved, rounded
resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...
plate (''tabli'') and a long, hollow straight neck, in section resembling a rounded capital D. The round lower chamber to which the tabli, the connecting heel-piece and the neck (''dandh'') are fixed is cut from a selected and dried
gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...
(''tumba''). Wood used is either tun or
teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...
; bridges are usually cut from one piece of bone. *''Tanjore style'': this is a
south India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...
n style of tambura, used widely by Carnatic performers. It has a somewhat different shape and style of decoration from that of the Miraj, but is otherwise much the same size. Typically, no gourd is used, but the spherical part is gouged out of a solid block of wood. The neck is somewhat smaller in diameter. Jack wood is used throughout; bridges are usually cut from one piece of
rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...
. Often, two rosettes are drilled out and ornamented with inlay work.


References


Sources

* source for Sangit Parijat is Ahobal Pandit, translated by Kalind-Hatvas, Sangeet Karyalaya 1971 * Wim van der Meer - Joep Bor: De roep van de Kokila, historische en hedendaagse aspekten van de Indiase muziek; Martinus Nijhoff / 's-Gravenhage 1982, * Hindustani Music, 13th to 20th centuries, editors: Joep Bor, Françoise Delvoye, Jane Harvey & Emmy te Nijenhuis; Codarts, Manohar 2010 *
On some Indian string instruments (1921)
Sir C V Raman, FRS, M.A., D.Sc. (Hon), Palit Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta, Nobel Prize, 1930
''Beyond Swayambhu Gandhar: an analysis of perceived tanpura notes''
Paritosh K. Pandya.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a leading research Institute under the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India. It is a public deemed university located at Navy Nagar, Colaba in Mumbai. It also has a centres in ...
, Mumbai
Audio samples of tanpura of various pitch
Glorian.bandcamp.com


Further reading



Medieval.org, Martin Spaink, 2003. {{Authority control Indian musical instruments Hindustani musical instruments Carnatic music instruments Necked bowl lutes Tanbur